164 Strawberry-Growing 



no small matter, they are more abstemious." Small 

 girls and boys are about equally good pickers, if closely 

 watched. Children eight to twelve years old do better 

 work than those between the ages of fourteen and eight- 

 een. One advantage of using men and large boys is 

 that they can pick in rainy weather and early morning, 

 when the vines are wet with dew, or on very hot days; 

 a grower hesitates to ask women and young children to 

 pick under these conditions. 



When local help is inadequate, pickers are secured 

 from elsewhere, and camp on the farm. Usually the 

 grower provides camping facilities, including sheds, 

 tents, cook stoves and bedding. In the North Atlantic 

 states, Italians, Bohemians and Poles are used, always 

 with a foreman of their own nationality, who is made 

 responsible ; American foremen cannot handle them well. 

 These pickers are always on hand and will work fourteen 

 hours a day if necessary. There are over 10,000 berry 

 pickers in Baltimore alone. From Maryland southward, 

 negro help is used almost exclusively. There are some 

 professional pickers who work in gangs almost the year 

 round, beginning in Texas or Florida and working north- 

 ward with the season. They will not stay except during 

 the height of the season, when picking is good. These 

 itinerant pickers seldom are trustworthy. 



Maintaining the grade. 



The greatest diflSculty in the management of pickers 

 is to prevent them from filling the boxes with green, 

 over-ripe, small or imperfect berries, and to see that 

 they do not pull or snap the berries from the vines. If 

 the fruit is not graded at the packing shed, extra watch- 

 fulness is necessary in the field. Each picker should 



